What Do You Expect To Find in the Bible?

I. The Bible Is God’s Message

A. God produced the Bible to educate people. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (2 Timothy 3:16)

B. That education enables believers to mature into what God designed them to be. “That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:17)

1. Everyone needs help understanding reality; twisted sinners do not automatically understand all that God expects. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

2.People like to imagine that they understand, but inherent stubbornness makes obedience unnatural. “For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.” (Job 11:12)

3. People have to be told the truth; worldly wisdom cannot lead to God. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:21)

4. Preaching from Scripture is the method designed by God to open the way to heaven; the many forms of successful evangelism all lead back to Bible teaching. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

C. The Bible is the only entirely reliable guide to what God expects. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Peter 1:19-21)

1. Jesus Christ, the subject of the Bible, is the only effective platform for eternal life. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:11)

2. The Bible must be used as God says He intends it to be used; even Satan can quote the Bible and even the demons know it is true. “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39)

3. Calvin noted [in the Institutes 2:1.4], “Adam had never dared to resist the authority of God, if [Satan] had not discredited His word.”

D. God warns against any deviation from the Bible. “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” (Revelation 22:18-19)

E. Any other guide is hopeless. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isaiah 8:20)

1. Tradition and folk wisdom fail to produce useful results. “But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.” (1 Timothy 4:7)

2. Philosophy will not accomplish what Scripture delivers. “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:5)

a. Philosopher William Young, English translator of Herman Dooyeweerd, said in retrospect he would gladly have given up his career and academic acclaim to have spent his life as a simple Bible teacher.

b. Calvin said [when commenting on Colossians 2:9] “He who is not contented with Christ alone, desires something better and more excellent than God.”

c. The Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches of France [1542] states, “Our philosophy is to receive in simplicity what the Scripture shows us.”

F. Jesus treated the full Bible as His own story and taught that even the evidence of personal sight would not convince someone who did not find Him in the Torah. “Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” (Luke 16:29-31)

G. There is no alternate gospel or legitimate improvement on the Word of God. “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8-9)

1. Calvin said [in his commentary on Isaiah] “They who wish to build the Church by rejecting the doctrine of the word, build a hog’s sty, and not the Church of God.”

2. Calvin said [in his commentary on Jeremiah] “As soon as men depart even in the smallest degree from God’s word, they cannot preach anything but falsehoods, vanities, impostures, errors and deceits.”

II. The Bible Demonstrates Its Power for People Who Use It

A. The Bible demonstrates a compelling internal authority; people who are not convinced turn against God. “I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” (Hosea 8:12)

B. The Bible opens the great mysteries of life. “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:” (1 Corinthians 2:6-7)

C. As a spiritual student works with Scripture, one part fits with another, combining to yield increasing understanding. “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” (1 Corinthians 2:13)

D. Faithfully and earnest interaction with Scripture progressively exposes the beautiful unity of God’s mind and Heaven’s message begins to appear. “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” (Psalm 12:6) “Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.” (Psalm 119:140)

E. Parents who love their children will teach the Bible to the children. “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” (Deuteronomy 6:7) “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:15) Calvin [in his Commentary on Galatians] said, “The true meaning of Scripture is the natural and obvious meaning.”

III. Faithful Students Come To Know God and His Expectations

A. The Bible speaks directly to what people need to know about God and what He expects. “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” (John 20:31) “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.” (John 21:25)

B. Of course a person who refuses to search will find nothing; nothing fits into a closed mind. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

1. Calvin [in his Commentary on John] said, “Unbelief . . . is always proud . . . [It] will never understand anything in the words of Christ, which it despises and disdains . . . this arises from the depravity of men.”

2. Calvin [in his commentary on Acts] said, “There is no end of erring, when we depart from the word of God.”

C. The transformed life, which emerges in students who submit themselves to Scripture, first satisfies and subsequently compels. “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” (Acts 10:43) “Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:” (Acts 26:22)

D. The Bible reveals life as nothing else can. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

E. The power in Scripture derives from the way in which the Holy Spirit uses the Bible to change people. “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” (John 16:13-14)

1. Calvin [in his Commentary on Isaiah] said, “The ‘Spirit’ is joined with the word, because, without the efficacy of the Spirit, the preaching of the gospel would avail nothing, but would remain unfruitful. In like manner ‘the word’ must not be separated from ‘the Spirit,’ as fanatics imagine, who, despising the word, glory in the name of the Spirit, and swell with vain confidence in their own imaginations. It is the spirit of Satan that is separated from the word, to which the Spirit of God is continually joined.”

2. Full Bible Presbyterians distinguish themselves on one nonnegotiable point stated by Calvin [in his Commentary on Hebrews], “They belong not at all to Christ, who turn aside from His word.”

Expect to find God and eternal life in the Bible or be certain of finding death and eternal loss apart from it.

The Solution Becomes the Problem

Hosea 8:1-14; 1 Peter 2:1-10 / Psalm 52:1-9

Dr. Edwin P. Elliott

I. Listen When God Warns

A. God warned Israel that the people had violated His revealed order. “Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.” (Hosea 8:1)

B. Terror turns hypocrisy into solid doctrine; God will do what the situation requires to eliminate hypocrisy and self-induced ignorance. “Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.” (Hosea 8:2)

C. When people reject truth, they invite serious trouble; truth is the best antibody to infectious evil. “Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.” (Hosea 8:3)

II. Israel Consistently Chose Destructive Solutions for Life’s Problems

A. Benefits can become burdens and what should strengthen a culture can become the undermining force. “They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.” (Hosea 8:4)

B. The pride Israel took in its improvements over revealed worship and church administration were actually provocative to God. “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?” (Hosea 8:5)

1. God calls to people who trust Him but He separates Himself from those who rely on other gods that are unable to save them. “Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.” (Isaiah 45:20)

2. The living God is either the foundation stone or the stumbling stone; there simply isn’t any other option. “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.” (1 Peter 2:1-8)

C. In the great culture clash, something will be destroyed; it won’t be God or the faithful church. “For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.” (Hosea 8:6)

D. Idolatry generates its own punishment; even what appears to succeed cannot benefit its perpetrators. “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” (Hosea 8:7)

E. When the church imitates the perishing cultures around it, the church secures the judgment of those cultures; hired love is not love. “Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.” (Hosea 8:8-9)

F. The future is not all that mysterious. “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” (2 Timothy 2:20-21)

G. Being wrong gets painful; God guarantees it. “Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.” (Hosea 8:10)

III. The More People Support Bad Ideas, the Worse They Make Their Situation

A. Unless the doors lead to the true God, they open in hell. “Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.” (Hosea 8:11) ) “Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?” (Deuteronomy 4:6-8)

B. God explains everything in Scripture but idolaters won’t rely on it; only the spiritual can see truth. “I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” (Hosea 8:120 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

C. If the system only mimics truth, it will not work; deviation from truth is fundamentally wrong. “They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.” (Hosea 8:13)

D. There is no way to make sin work; wrong solutions to life’s problems become problems themselves. “For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.” (Hosea 8:14)

Thy Will Be Done

“It is one of the great ironies of these modern times in which we live that Christians can pray ‘They will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ and not actually mean anything by it. Indeed, it is a stunning paradox that we can live as if such a prayer could not be answered. Even worse, we can live as if such a prayer should not be answered."

“Thomas Chalmers, the great nineteenth-century pastor, reformer, and educator, asserted that ‘pessimism about the real, palpable, and demonstrable transforming power of the Gospel in history ultimately engenders doubt in the whole of the culture. It is a doubt that has its naissance in over-spiritualizing the church but that has its renaissance in under-spiritualizing the society."

“Thus, if we Christians have come to believe—contrary to all our creeds, confessions, and prayers—that the will of God is irrelevant to our culture, is it any wonder then that our culture has accepted that proposition with all the zeal of new converts? Is it possible that our recalcitrance has led to their irreverence; that our passivity has led to their lasciviousness; that our subjective approach to obedience has led to their objective approach to disobedience; that our pessimism has led to their atheism?”

These lines come from one of the great Full Bible preachers of our time, Dr. George Grant.

If you find these insights stir something in your heart, come by and visit the Old Town Church. You will find a gathering of people doing something about the problem. Manassas has a full Bible Church.

Visit the Reformed Presbyterian Church on the Internet. Listen to Pastor Elliott right now: 2007-11-21 PM Think Victory.mp3.

Welcome!

If you are looking for a blog with Manassas in the search field, finding the church in Old Town may be a surprise to you. Manassas calls to mind Stonewall Jackson, the Battle of Bull Run, and more recently immigration disputes.

All of these problems cry out for help. In an address to a small prayer meeting, Pastor Elliott opened Psalm 20 to show how God approaches war and personal conflict: 2007-12-05 Seek Help Where It Can Be Found - Psalm 20.mp3.

Help from God’s House is better than any other resource. Find out how God answers prayer.

Why do we call our church Reformed Presbyterian?

Why do we call our church Reformed Presbyterian? The idea comes from Scripture. Ezra Chapter 9 is a good place to start. In the following sermon, Pastor Elliott explains the concept: 2007-10-28 PM Reformation - Ezra 9.mp3.

Most sermons from traditional Presbyterian pulpits concentrate on explaining Scripture. This sermon makes an application of Scripture across the centuries and introduces the worldview of Full Bible Presbyterians.

If you love the Lord Jesus, desire to know Him in Scripture, and seek to live for Him in this life and the next, the church in Old Town Manassas may be where you belong.

Visit with us on Sundays at 10 in the morning and 7 at night. Sing songs from the Bible, pray with people who believe God is able to change the world, and open your heart to the Bible.

You will find other interesting sermons at the congregational web site: http://www.rpchurch.org/MiscAudioSer.htm.

Wednesday January 9, 2008 7:30 PM Service

The Lord Is My Shepherd

Psalm 23
Dr. Edwin P. Elliott

I. God Takes Care of His People

A. The God of sovereign grace does for His people what a shepherd does for his sheep; God protects from danger and supplies needs. “A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1)

1. David spoke of the shepherd’s work from his own experience. “He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.” (Psalm 78:70-71)

2. Jesus is the good shepherd. “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11) “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” (Isaiah 40:11)

B. There are other shepherds who are not good for the sheep. “But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.” (John 10:12-13)

C. God provides for His people what they need. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.” (Psalm 23:2) “Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.” (Proverbs 15:16-17)

D. Sheep take comfort in the knowledge that the shepherd will not abandon them or leave them to the penalty of their private adventures. “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:3) “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.” (Psalm 119:176)

II. God Always Takes Care of His People

A. Life’s greatest terrors shrink as a believer grasps God’s protective interest in His own. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)

B. God does not leave His sheep unattended to face their enemies. “A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:1-4)

C. As believers get to know the Savior, all the arguments for fear and worry fade. “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

D. Pagans fear death but believers view it as the entrance into perfection. “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:53-57)

III. God Never Stops Taking Care of His People

A. David hints at the eternal banquet with God when believers will be finally and entirely vindicated; the good times are coming. “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” (Psalm 23:5)

B. Christ guaranteed the good times in the Lord’s Supper. “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.” (John 6:53-56)

C. Eternal joy waits for those who trust in God. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” (Psalm 23:6)

D. When human resources fail, the eternal ones appear. “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” (Psalm 73:26)

E. Never let the present stand in the way of the eternal. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Corinthians 5:1) “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:” (Philippians 1:23)

Sunday January 6, 2008 10:00 AM Service

I Will Have Mercy

Hosea 1:1-11; Matthew 26:17-30 / Exodus 20:1-17
Dr. Edwin P. Elliott

I. Apostasy from God Is Spiritual Adultery

A. Hosea preached across 80 years and primarily in Israel, the Northern Kingdom. “The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.” (Hosea 1:1) [Hosea means salvation.]

B. God directed Hosea to marry an unfaithful woman who would eventually illustrate Heaven’s problem with spiritual unfaithfulness. “The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.” (Hosea 1:2) [Having focused on material prosperity rather than inner integrity, Israel was now less than 30 years from national destruction.]

C. Suffering must be turned to good use according to God. “Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” (2 Corinthians 1:4) “And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.” (2 Corinthians 1:6)

D. The Savior intimately understands betrayal. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3)

II. God Dealt with Unfaithfulness Personally

A. Hosea did as he was told and experienced what God encountered in Israel’s apostasy. “So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son. And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.” (Hosea 1:3-5)

1. Jezreel called to mind the tragic judicial murder of Naboth. “And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.” (1 Kings 21:1) “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

2. Evil ripples across the generations like a pebble tossed in a pond. “So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.” (2 Kings 10:11)

B. Hosea then learned what God intended for Judah. “And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.” (Hosea 1:6-7)

C. Just as adultery ravages the marriage covenant, apostasy repudiates the heavenly covenant. “Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.” (Hosea 1:8-9)

III. Seek Heaven’s Mercy

A. God refuses to accept disaster; restoration will come. “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.” (Hosea 1:10)

B. All God’s people will be gathered into one holy people; the Holy One Himself shall gather a church from every people, tongue, tribe, and nation. “Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.” (Hosea 1:11) “Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.” (Hosea 3:1)

C. Grace is greater than sin; God is willing to restore the unfaithful. “In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers. But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.” (Jeremiah 3:18-19)

D. The Messiah cleanses His people. “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:” (Romans 11:26) “And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.” (Hosea 3:3-5)

E. Come to the Lord’s Table that the cleansing and healing may begin now. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)